#contactcenter

Congratulations Jackson! 

Jackson National Life Insurance (Jackson) recently announced that it was named Contact Center of the Year by SQM Group. This top honor was achieved for earning the highest combined ratings for customer and employee experience among a field of leading call centers from across North America. 

I've spent nearly three decades working with and within the customer care and customer support industry. What a blessing! Time and again I have had the great pleasure of meeting people who understand the need for and the value of great customer service. It’s important to take the time to celebrate those people, the companies they work for, the teams they work with and the stories that often go unheard and unappreciated. We’re excited to share the news about this outstanding achievement and help shine a light on their performance and teams. 

According to SQM’s benchmarking survey, 97 percent of financial professionals who called the contact center gave Jackson’s customer service the highest possible rating, which is 12 points higher than the industry average. The survey also showed the contact center resolved 89 percent of inquiries in the first call, which is 8 percent higher than the average world class call center.

Read the full press release here! 

Jackson was also honored with three additional awards including Contact Center World Class CX Certification and Highest Customer Service — Financial Industry. 

SQM’s awards are based on the customer’s satisfaction with his or her service experience, the customer service representative, as well as the resolution of the call. Feedback came from the customers who contacted Jackson as well as employees who worked in a contact center. SQM benchmarks more than 500 leading North American contact centers annually and has conducted benchmarking studies since 1996. The 2019 awards are based on studies from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019.

Well done Jackson and congratulations to everyone involved in this achievement ... from the CCNG Magnet Program and the entire CCNG network. 

Connect with Lon Hendrickson, Executive Director, CCNG Magnet Program on LinkedIn, Twitter @LonHendrickson or at lhendrickson@ccng.com

At CCNG, we know strong brands are built on exceptional customer care. It’s why we’ve dedicated our efforts to creating and cultivating a community for the people that make exceptional customer care possible. Join us!

A Path Forward: 

I’ve always been a glass-half-full guy. And right now that’s been really helpful as there’s plenty of bad news and hard decisions in our lives. But, there's something about a common enemy or a universal challenge that brings out the best of us. Inspires us. Motivates us. As we navigate through our new challenges we’re also learning about great acts of humanity, community, creativity, and leadership. And perhaps it offers us a path for moving forward. 

So today I’d like to talk about leadership. 

Leadership is the lifeblood of an organization. Great leadership, the pursuit of excellence and a desire to spread success has tangible impact. Strong organizations are built and sustained by highly-effective leaders and solid leadership throughout the organization. I've interviewed numerous executives on the topic of leadership in the contact center. They’ve shared their perspectives and how their own experiences impact the people and performance of their organizations. 

In these conversations there are common threads that run through their stories and an obvious consensus around three major areas of impact. Strong leadership builds culture, fuels performance and helps sustain the business. In a recent conversation Jason Mercer-Pottinger, RTS Operations Director with RTS US Inc. (Baxter International) shared some perspectives on leadership that have been a foundation for his success.

“It is really key to ensure that any organization has a talent pipeline that's encouraging and developing our leaders of the future. Within the contact center industry it is so important because most of us don't plan to start out as contact center leaders. This typically develops over a period of time. So you really need to ensure that whatever level you're at you can see there are opportunities and the ability to move up within a contact center environment.” commented Jason. We also talked about how sharing knowledge and inspiration is fundamentally important in our professional lives. “One of the best ways to continue to grow your own leadership abilities is to work with the emerging leaders in your organization. Giving back the knowledge I've gained over nearly 30 years in this industry is really rewarding. And mentoring for me is really key.” 

You can listen to the full  interview with Jason online as part of the Perspectives on Leadership webcast series on the CCNG Webcast Channel. And we encourage you to share it with your teams.  

When we’re faced with a challenge you can lean heavily on the experience and knowledge of your network. I consider this blog a forum for recognizing and celebrating those leaders and organizations who have demonstrated excellence, and those that are striving to join their ranks. Let’s bring a little visibility to great customer care organizations and customer service excellence in all forms. 

That’s my path forward … and I hope you’ll join me. 

Connect with Lon Hendrickson, Executive Director, CCNG Magnet Program on LinkedIn, Twitter @LonHendrickson or at lhendrickson@ccng.com

At CCNG, we know strong brands are built on exceptional customer care. It’s why we’ve dedicated our efforts to creating and cultivating a community for the people that make exceptional customer care possible. Join us!

#excellence #pursuingexcellence #leadership #sharingknowledge #spreadingsuccess #contactcenter #cctr #callcenter